Which are separate from him, but even the SER. VII.
Son and Holy Ghost, who are founited,
Justo Be One, and infeparably included with

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him? But if it must be thus rigorously interpreted, whether it will not follow from •Ifarab and St. Paul compared together, that the Son likewife is the only God Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the Ends of the Earth For Tam God, and there is none else: I have sworn by myself, the Word is gone out of my Mouth in Righteoufness, and

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every hall not return, that unto me
every Knee ball
Shall bow, every Tongue 'shall
Swear Ifaiah xlv. 22, 23. Compare the
NeTeftament. We shall all stand before
the Judgment-Seat of Chrift. For it is writ-
ten, As I live, faith the Lord, every Knee
fhall bow to me, and every Tongue ball con-
fefs to God, Romans xiv. 10, 11. And
again, At the Name of Jefus every Knee
fhall bow, of Things in Heaven, and Things
in Earth, and Things under the Earth,
Phil. i. d. The Application of the Text
in Ifaiah to Chrift is manifeft from these
twoPaffages: It is as manifeft that the Perfon
fpoken of in Ifaiab is the only God, I am
God, and there is none else. Therefore
Scripture treating

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VOL. II.

the Unity of God

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places

1

SER. VII. places it in another Perfon, befides the Father.

J

Whether common Chriftians, without understanding technical Terms, fuch as Mode, Perfon, Subftance, numerical, and Specifical, may not understand, that Father, Son, and Holy Ghoft, though really distinct from one another, may be fo far ane, as to have an inseparable Union of Prefence, Will, and all Perfections; fo far one, that they can no more exift or act afunder, than they can not exist at all?

C

V

Whether fuch a Faith, which requires

腰

no great Abstraction of Thought, may not anfwer feveral beneficial Ends; and incline them, from the Fulnefs of an evergrateful Heart, to pay the Tribute of undiffembled Love and Adoration to the Father, whofe unfathomable Wisdom laid and concerted the ftupendous Plan of our Redemption, to the Son, whofe unbounded Love undertook the Execution of it, and to the Holy Spirit, whofe never-failing Grace enables them to fulfil the Conditions of it?

Whether common Chriftians may not have correcter Notions of the three divine Perfons by refting in the general Truth of

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"}

the Doctrine, than fpeculative Refiners, SER. VII.
who want to have explicit and determinate
Ideas of Things incomprehenfible," who
are for defcending into minute Particulari-
ties, the Knowledge of which, because they
are Matters of useless Speculation and mere
Amusement, is therefore unattainable by us?
The Objections against the mysterious
Doctrines of the Gospel conclude as ftrong-
ly for Atheism, as they do against Chrifti-
anity. A Perfon, who is an Half-Thinker,
may stop at half Way: But he, who will
be at any Expence of Thought, muft fee,
that for the very fame Reason, for which
he
rejects
the three Perfons, viz. because
the Doctrine is incomprehenfible; he muft,
if confiftent with himself, difbelieve even
one divine Perfon. There is fuch a mu-
tual Harmony and Cortefpondence in the
Compages of Truths, that, if one Member
fuffers, all the Members fuffer with it; and
if one Member be honoured, all the Mem-
bers rejoice with it. That fomething has
existed from all Eternity, is a Truth, which
forces itself upon the Mind, and extorts the
Affent of every thinking Man, of every
Chriftian, Deift, and even Atheift. And
yet I do not know any Thing fo hard of
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Di

I Digeftion in the Doctrine of the Trinity; as there is in the Notion of Eternity, viz that, whatever has exifted without any Beginning, must have existed no longer at this prefent Moment of Time, than it had, exifted Millions of Ages ago. For the prefent Moment of Time is in the Center or Middle between two Eternities, that which is paft, and that which is come the Moment of Time, that was prefent fome Millions of Ages ago, was then the Center or, Middle and the Moment to come, {some Millions of Ages hence, will be then the Center.

25.

SER, VII

".

16*

Chriftianity does not require us to puzzle ourfelves or others with metaphyfical Difquifitions; bow or in what particular Manner three are fo infeparably united as to be one; no more than natural Religion enjoins; us to embarrass our Minds with Inquiries; how Fore-Knowledge in God is reconcileable with Free-Will in Man; how our Father, which is in Heaven, can be about our Path and about our Bed; how, if he is extended, the Confcioufness of Being in Heaven (though locally distinct and immenfely diftant) can be one and the fame with the Confciousness of Being on Earth; or how, if he is unex

tended,

Trinity. tended, he can act every every where, without SER. VII

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631

being fubftantially prefent; or how any
Thing can be made out of Nothing In
all these Points we understand the Terms of
the Propofitions, and the Proofs of them
from Reafon or Revelation, without being
able to penetrate into the Minutia of them,
and every curious Nicety relating to them.
Men may pretend to understand what
they do not, and be ambitious of under-
ftanding, what they cannot; grafping at
Things, to which their Capacities are not
fuited The Man, who, without ever
confidering these Points as to their Modus,
should immediately declare he knows no-
thing of the Matter, has made as great
Advances in Knowledge in a Moment
the Perfon who has impaired his Health,
and exhaufted his Spirits in fuch unconcern-
ing Researches. Such are feveral Points in
natural Philofophy, as well as Theology.
The only Use they are of, is to check our
Prefumption, and to make us know (a very
ufeful Part of Knowledge, but of which
fome feem incapable,) that there are many
Things, which we cannot know; that we
had much better lay out our Time in know-
ing ourselves as to our moral Character;

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the

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